FOR Irish eventers, the heady achievements of last year were never going to be easy to match, but there was no shortage of international glory as Cathal Daniels brilliantly brought home Ireland’s first senior individual medal for 24 years.

Landing the bronze medal at the FEI European Championships in Luhmühlen, the unstoppable Daniels piloted Margaret Kinsella’s gutsy mare Rioghan Rua and has now entered an elite band of riders who have been honoured at pony, junior, young rider, and at senior level.

This achievement, together with many others, promoted the Co Galway man to 11th spot in the final FEI world rankings for 2019, while with two long format four-star wins under his belt, fellow 2018 WEG silver medallist Sam Watson completed his successful year just outside the top 50.

With the coveted Olympic team qualification already secured, 2019 was a year of consolidation and experimentation for team coach Sally Corscadden. On the team front, and with the pressure off, Corscadden had the luxury of trialling new partnerships, giving the younger riders a chance to perform on the world stage and to accumulate qualifications for others.

“We are aiming to strengthen our horse pool, which is one of our greatest challenges.” explained Corscadden. “It’s been exciting this autumn to see the young riders and horses coming through as it widens the options. Ideally, we want riders to be able to compete at the highest level on a regular basis, with more than one horse.”

Of course, with the Tokyo Olympic Games taking place next August, 2020 will be a massive year both for Corscadden and those in contention. “We are working very closely with the OFI (Olympic Federation of Ireland) who are very much on side, and whose representative Tricia Herbele travelled with us to the test event earlier this year,” she added.

“We have tried to build on the success of last year, and as a consequence of that success, people have seen that we have a good system in place and that we are on the rise – they want to join in.”

Horse power

Ironically in this nation of the horse, shortage of top-class eligible horses for our talented riders has always been a problem, and it was notable that of the four horses who won silver medals in Tryon last summer, only Rioghan Rua has completed a full season.

The Padraig McCarthy-ridden Mr Chunky has been on the back burner since May, Horseware Ardagh Highlight has not run this year, while Sarah Ennis made just one highly rewarding outing with Horseware Stellor Rebound in Millstreet.

“Quite early on in the year we lost Mr Chunky, and a couple of others due to minor injuries,” explained Corscadden. “

"So, we thought that as we had the time, we would take the long-term view to have the strongest horses available for next year and not run them until they were 100%.”

In order to increase this depth, giant strides have been made to encourage more owners into the sport, and to value those already on board. Breaking new ground and with this aim in mind, the owners at the European championships this year were thanked and honoured at a presentation dinner, while at Badminton, Nick Boyle’s Lightsource corporate facility was generously made available to team Ireland for the duration.

2019 was an outstanding year for the Irish-bred event horse and, largely due to their domination at the five-star showcases in Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley, the ISH stud book regained the top spot on the WBFSH world rankings.

The six and seven-year-old horses also performed well, but after encountering mixed fortunes at their world championships in Le Lion d’Angers this October, the stud book slipped to second.

European Championships

Despite some mixed fortunes, the championships were in parts brilliantly successful and concluded when Cathal Daniels brought home Ireland’s first individual medal since Lucy Thompson landed gold at Pratoni back in 1995.

Crowning a marvellous season to win bronze, Daniels stood on the podium alongside eventing royalty Ingrid Klimke who retained the title, and also the legendary Michael Jung.

As he did in Tryon 12 months earlier, Daniels teamed up with Mags Kinsella’s Rioghan Rua, and opened competitively on a personal best of 29.00. They progressed to deliver a scorching round in the country which further promoted the pair to sixth spot overnight.

As cool as ever under pressure on the final day, Daniels jumped the clean round he needed, and in a nail-biting climax, he gradually edged to a podium place.

This was a great result for Daniels, owner Mags Kinsella and connections, and also for Sally Corscadden who, in terms of selection, had endured a fraught lead up to the championships.

Last-minute injury problems had forced several fancied contenders to drop out, so the final list was named as Ciaran Glynn (November Night), Sarah Ennis (Horseware Woodcourt Garrison), Cathal Daniels (Rioghan Rua) and Sam Watson (Tullabeg Flamenco) with Tony Kennedy (Westeria Lane) travelling as an individual.

“There were certainly some tough decisions to make,” confirmed Corscadden. “But it was good to see that despite the challenges we were still competitive.”

They were undoubtedly competitive, but ultimately it was a case of what might have been. The team were well placed in a close fifth spot after dressage, and opened the cross-country in brilliant style when both Glynn and Daniels stormed home within the time. Boosting hopes further Ennis added just 2.8 time penalties to her otherwise clean round, leaving just Watson and Tullabeg Flamenco as the anchor leg.

Disappointment was to follow however, when, veering off their line at the troublesome combination (20b), the pair accumulated a costly 20 penalties. Things were still looking positive, as it was hoped that this would be the discard score.

Sadly, however this was not to be, as having picked up a knock the previous day, Glynn’s game mare November Night was unfortunately withdrawn from the final inspection.

The remaining trio delivered good show jumping rounds, to finally complete on a team total of 125 penalties, and in sixth place from the 12 teams who took part.

In front of an enthusiastic crowd, Germany dominated to take the team gold by a distance, from Great Britain and Belgium.

Running as an individual, championship rookie Tony Kennedy was pleased with the performance of Westeria Lane, who despite running past the influential 12b, completed inside the time, and added just four penalties in the show jumping (41st).

Germany’s Michael Jung (fischerChipmunk FST) was in gold medal position when he knocked one coloured pole, slipping to silver and handing gold to his teammate, Ingrid Klimke (SAP Hale Bob), somewhat in redemption for the gold she lost 12 months earlier when knocking the final fence at the WEG.